Process of milling cotton-seed.



No. 807,990. PATENTED DEC. 19,1905.

W. T. BALL.

PROCESS OF MILLING COTTON SEED.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 17. 1903.

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\VILLIAM T. BALL, OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-FIFTHTO HAMPTON K. LEA AND ONE-FIFTH TO GEORGE S. LE GARE, OF CHARLESTON,SOUTH CAROLINA; ONE-FIFTH TO THOMAS R. HARNEY, OF WVASHINGTON, DISTRICTOF COLUMBIA, AND ONE FIFTH TO CHARLES MINER, OF CHESTER, SOUTH CAROLINA.

PROCESS OF MILLING COTTON-SEED.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 19, 1905.

Application filed June 17, 1903. Serial No. 161,874. Substituted forabandoned application filed November 5, 1902, Serial N0.130.130.

T (bl/1 7071 0177 it may concern.-

Be it known that Ll/VILLIAM T. BALL, a citizen of the United States,residing at Charles ton, in the county of Charleston and State of 5South Carolina, have invented new and useful Improvements in Processesof Milling Cotton- Seed, of which the following is a specification.

This invention comprises a process of milling or hulling cotton-seed;and the object thereof is to make a more perfect hulling and separationof the meats from the hulls without the loss of any of the oil or aslittle as possible.

It is characteristic of cotton-seed that it is of different sizes andshapes within certain limits, particularly as it comes to the oil-millsgathered from difi'erent counties or States, in which variation of soilor other conditions produces seed of various sizes. It is alsocharacteristic of cotton-seed that its hull is tough, rather thanbrittle, and requires a cutting'or shearing action instead of a crushingaction to remove the hull.

In the present state of the art of hulling and separating cotton-seedthe seed is run through a single huller or pair of cutting-rolls orother hulling devices and then the hulls and meats are separated and theoil is extracted from the latter. This oil is contained in small cellsin the meat of the berry, and it is perhaps needless to say that it isthe most valuable part of the seed.

To effect the greatest economy of operation and value of product, it isessential that the hulls of all the seed be cut and removed and alsothat none or as few as possible of the meats be broken or crushed. Ifthe meats are broken, a corresponding part of the oil escapes and isquickly absorbed by the hulls and goes off into product worth aboutthree dollars per ton, whereas the oil itself is ,worth about ninetydollars per ton. By the existing methods if the hulling devices are setso close as to catch and hull the small seed the fat meats of the largeand medium-sized berries are broken and practically ground into meal.The result of this is to lose a large portion of the oil by absorptioninto the hulls. If, on the other hand, the hulling de- 50 vices be setfarther apart, the small seed goes through uncut, with consequent lossthereof.

It has been found by experience in well-regulated mills that underexisting methods when the hulling devices are set to greatest economy ofoperation only about five per cent. of the meats are delivered uncut anda considerable portion of the fine seed passes through uncut, both ofwhich conditions are objectionable and wasteful. It will be appreciatedthat when ninety-five per cent. of the meats are more or less cut orbroken a considerable portion of oil escapes or is lost.

It is the object of my invention to remedy these defects and to providea process by which all of the seed large and small will be cut withleast breakage of the meats containing the oil. This object is effectedby a series of cuts gradually running from coarse to fine and aseparation of the meats, the hulls, and the uncut seed after eachreduction, the cutting-rolls or hulling devices being gaged according tothe size of the uncut seed. have found by experiment that three passesare ordinarily sufficient to reduce the seed with greatest economy.

The separation may be effected in the commonly-practiced way byseparating devices which .separate the meats from the uncut seed andhulls, the latter passing through the next hulling device, followed by asimilar separation, or the meats and the hulls and the uncut seed may beseparated from one another, the meats passing to the crushingrolls, thehulls to the hull-house, and the uncut seed to the next succeedinghulling device, and so on, the essential step of the separation beingthe extraction of the meats, as far as possible, after each pass fromthe stock which is to pass to the next hulling device, and thus preventas far as possible breaking or disintegration of the meats. As indicatedabove, the practice of the process is not restricted to the use of theexact type of hulling mechanism herein disclosed.

One way of carrying out the process is diagrammatically illustrated inthe accompanying drawing, and referring thereto 6 indicates the firstpair of hullingrolls, and these are gaged to out only the hulls oflarger size of seed. Thence the chop, including the uncut medium andsmall-sized seed, goes to the separator, (indicated at 7.) This ispreferably of the reciprocating screen kind, dividing the chop intouncut seed, hulls, and meats, and the seed is delivered to the second ormedium rolls 6, Where the operation is repeated through the secondseparator 7 and finally through the fine rolls 6 and third separator 7which, as I have found, will quite completely reduce all the seed.Necessarily, the successive separators are progressively finer inaccordance with the smaller size of the meats, hulls, and unbroken seeddelivered from each pair of rolls. The separated meats and hulls areindicated as being conveyed to discharges 8 and 9, respectively.

I have found by experiment that myprocess Will deliver aboutseventy-five per cent. of the meats unbroken With but a trace of oil inthe hulls and With absolutely perfect hulling of all the seeds, Whichcannot be done by existing methods, thereby reducing the loss from aboutsiX per cent., as is common now in the best mills, to less than one percent, and insuring an increased yield of oil amounting to one and a halfor two gallons to a ton of seed. The desired effect, as Will be seen, isto get the meats as coarse and unbroken as possible and yet break allthe grain, and a distinguishing feature of the process is the operationupon a seed the hull of Which Will not burst or crack by a crushingaction Without crushing the meats, and Which therefore requires for itsperfection a cutting process in Which the hulls are cut or chipped offWithout cutting or crushing the meats.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The rocess of hulling cotton-seed of various sizes Withoutdisintegrating the meats; conslstlng, essentially, 1n passing the seedthrough a graduated series of pairs of hull-cutting rolls, setsuccessively closer together and cutting and removing the hulls of seedsof successively smaller size Without disintegrating the meats, andseparating the hulls and meats from the uncut seed after each cut.

2. The process of hulling cotton-seed of various sizes Withoutdisintegrating the meats, consisting in extracting the Whole meats fromthe hulls of successively smaller sizes of the seed at severalsuccessive cuts, and separating the meats and hulls from the uncut seedafter each cut, substantially as described. I

3. The process of hulling cotton-seed consisting in passing the seedthrough a succession of hulling devices of gradually-decreasingclearance, set to remove the hulls, and to extract the meatssubstantially Without disintegration thereof, from the seed at theseveral successive passes, and separating the meats from the hulls anduncut seed after each pass.

4. The process of hulling cotton-seed of various sizes Withoutsubstantial disintegration of meats, consisting, essentially, in passingthe seed through a graduated series of hull-cutting devices setsuccessively closer together and cutting and removing the hulls of seedsof successively smaller size Without substantial disintegration ofmeats, and separating the meats from the uncut seed after each pass.

In testimony Whereof I have signed my name to this specification in thepresence of tWo subscribing Witnesses.

WILLIAM T. BALL.

Witnesses ELIZABETH MORAN, BEN. H. HARVIN.

